Expansion of materials at the micrometer scale and nanometer scale is important in data storage devices such as magnetic tape and disk drives. Specifically, such devices contain a small device called a “slider” on which is located a “head”. The slider moves relative to a recording medium (such as a tape or disk) during normal operation. The head contains circuitry (called “transducer”) to perform the functions of reading from and writing to a recording medium 120. A conventional head 110 (FIG. 1A) includes a microscopic region 111 at which the transducer is located. Head 110 may be either separately fabricated and attached to a slider 130, or integrally formed as a portion of slider 130. Slider 130 is formed primarily of a ceramic material, and head 110 is located at a trailing edge 131 thereof (FIG. 1A). Slider 130 typically has an air bearing surface (ABS) 133 facing the recording medium 120.
In certain disk drives, or tape drives, region 111 is separated from surface 121 (of recording medium 120) during normal operation by a distance called flying height (in a direction perpendicular to surface 121). Typical flying heights are designed to insure appropriate magnetic spacing between the transducer and the medium (e.g. in the range of 40–75 angstroms) and depend on the amount of heat generated in region 111. In region 111, head 110 can be made of heterogeneous materials, which have different thermal coefficients of expansion, and expand by different amounts. Depending on the magnitude of expansion and the location of head 110 relative to slider 130, a portion of the head in and around region 111 may expand (e.g. swell) outward (e.g. by 25 to 120 Angstroms) towards the recording medium 120 as illustrated in FIG. 1B. When the head's surface expands and bulges out (from its normally planar shape when powered down), the fly height is reduced by the amount of this expansion. The reduction in fly height is sufficient to cause the head to come into contact with the medium, resulting in the head itself or the recording medium or both being damaged.
For example, a head-to-disk current surge may occur suddenly when a head comes into close proximity to a disk. When such a current surge happens, read/write circuitry in the head may melt, thereby damaging the head permanently. Damage to the head can also occur by mechanical abrasion, e.g. when a head's protrusion acts as a phonograph needle. Contact of a head with the medium may also affect the drive's servo control (PES, position error signal), resulting in the head becoming unable to track the medium so that data cannot be written or read.
A prior art head may be heated via a resistor as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,991,113 granted to Meyer, et al. on Nov. 23, 1999, and entitled “Slider with temperature responsive transducer positioning”. Specifically, a temperature control circuit, coupled to a strip of thermally expansive material or to a resistance heating element on the slider, employs a variable current source to control the slider temperature and transducer displacement. Nominal slider operating temperatures can be set to achieve a predetermined transducer flying height, to compensate for variations in flying heights among batch fabricated sliders. Optionally, a temperature sensor can be employed to measure slider operating temperatures and provide a temperature sensitive input to the temperature control circuit. U.S. Pat. No. 5,991,113 is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. Also, a prior art head may have a pole tip recession (PTR), as noted in an application note (“appnote”) dated Nov. 8, 2000, entitled “Automated Measurement of Pole Tip Recession with New-Generation Atomic Force Microscopes” available over the Internet at www.veeco.com/pdf/PTRMain.pdf. This appnote states in pertinent part: “Recession is produced during lapping of slider rows during manufacture, when the hard ceramic Al203-TiC of the slider's ABS wears less than the softer NiFe pole tips. PTR contributes to the total magnetic spacing between the transducers and the magnetic layer of the disk, and is becoming a more significant portion of that spacing as flying heights shrink. . . . Manufacturers are seeking to reduce the PTR to <5 nanometers, to optimize performance, while maintaining a slight recession to allow for thermal expansion and to prevent damage in the event of contact with the disk.”
Lapping of slider rows (also called “strips”) is also described in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,095,613 granted to Hussinger et al, U.S. Pat. No. 5,361,547 granted to Church, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,914,868 also granted to Church, et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 4,912,883 granted to Chang, et al. each of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. For more information on fabrication of magnetic recording heads, see an article entitled “Materials and Processes for MR and GMR Heads and Assemblies” by Dr. K. Gilleo, N. Kerrick and G. Nichols, available on the Internet at www.cooksonsemi.com/staystik.htm, and this article is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. Note that instead of lapping a row of sliders, a strip having heads aligned in a column can be lapped, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,321,882 granted to Zarouri, et al. on Jun. 21, 1994 that is also incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
A change in a signal from a resistor or other device (also called “electrical lapping guide”) on each head may be monitored during lapping of the head, to determine when to stop lapping, as described in, for example U.S. Pat. No. 4,914,868 (incorporated by reference above), and in the following each of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety: U.S. Pat. No. 3,821,815 granted to Abbott et al. (which discloses electrical monitoring of films during material removal), U.S. Pat. No. 3,787,638 granted to Murai (which discloses a Hall element with one or more leads used during head manufacture to measure the amount of material being ground away), U.S. Pat. No. 4,675,986 granted to Yen (which discloses electrical lapping devices having graded resistance), U.S. Pat. No. 5,175,938 granted to Smith (which teaches combining different types of graded resistors), and U.S. Pat. No. 5,065,483 granted to Zammit (which teaches comparing a resistive lapping guide with a finished lapping guide).
U.S. Pat. No. 5,632,669 granted to Azarian, et al. on May 27, 1997, and entitled “Interactive method for lapping transducers” describes a lapping body that communicates with a transducer with a type of signal that the transducer is designed to read and/or write. Thus for lapping a magnetic head or slider to be employed in a hard disk drive, the lapping body contains a magnetic medium layer that is either prerecorded or written by the head during lapping, while the signal received by the head is monitored and analyzed by a processor in order to determine, in part, when to terminate lapping. A series of transducers can be simultaneously lapped while individually monitored, so that each transducer can be removed from the lapping body individually upon receipt of a signal indicating that transducer has been lapped an optimal amount. Transducers for employment in drive systems can also be tested for performance characteristics by utilizing lapping bodies having surface characteristics similar to those found in the drive system. U.S. Pat. No. 5,632,669 is also incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.